Founded in 2014, Yacht Harbour has now gone through nearly 3 years of rapid growth, packed with milestones and interesting events. In this list are 11 things about Yacht Harbour that are not widely known, but we thought were interesting enough to share.
#1 Yacht Harbour started as an Instagram channel
Even though Yacht Harbour's initial plan was to build a web platform for a marketplace of yachts for sale, the company started an Instagram account in August 2014 to get some sort of traction, ahead of the launch of its website in December of that year.
At a time when no yachting media companies were on the platform, the strategy proved successful and saw Yacht Harbour get to 10,000 followers in under 4 months. This, in turn, proved instrumental to getting the first users to Yacht Harbour.
#2 We power instant results for a Top 5 search engine
Another little known fact about Yacht Harbour is that the company's index powers an instant result snippet for search engine, DuckDuckGo. One of the 5 available search settings on an iPhone, DuckDuckGo is a search engine built with privacy in mind.
Any user searching for a particular yacht on the platform, will see on top of search results an image of the yacht with it's main specifications, which DuckDuckGo displays using an API built by Yacht Harbour on top of its database for the search engine.
#3 News coverage was first meant as a content marketing play
Even though our audience is now spread evenly across its superyacht marketplace and its news section, Yacht Harbour's editorial coverage was started only in October 2015 to act as a content marketing vehicle for its search platform.
Despite these plans, news coverage rapidly evolved and grew to serve the purposes of a true media company, which Yacht Harbour has since become. Stories broken by our news department are now often used as sources by international media such as the BBC, CNBC and others.
#4 We built a chat bot to answer any yachting question
Developed in a wave of growing excitement over chat bots, Brook became the first chat bot in yachting that used a combination of machine learning, natural language recognition and big data to answer any question related to yacht.
Although Brook was since retired due to a lack of users, Yacht Harbour did manage to build a working version, answering over 80% of asked questions. Its original interface can still be seen here. When live it was even accessible from the Telegram messaging platform.
#5 Our content can be found on Forbes and Business Insider
As part of its content distribution strategy, Yacht Harbour struck deals with Business Insider to distribute part of its English-language content and to contribute stories to the French and Russian versions of Forbes.
With news stories around yachting and articles trying to open up the field to a more general audience, this content was read over 2 million times so far in 2017.
#6 We ran a crowdfunding campaign in our first year
Far from today's peak of attention around ICOs, Yacht Harbour ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2015 as an experiment, ahead of the launch of its charter marketplace to offer heavily discounted deals and lifetime advantages for participants.
Through the campaign, Yacht Harbour raised just under $3,000 from a series of contributors. The value of some the items offered then by Yacht Harbour has grown over 1,000x today.
#7 We get 10 million impressions of our content every month
Having rapidly grown from the 23 visitors Yacht Harbour on the day of it's launch, the company's combined channels now reach over 10 million impressions every month. This figure includes Yacht Harbour's website traffic, social media reach and audience on third-party platforms.
#8 There are sometimes easter eggs on Yacht Harbour
Sometimes overtaken by the holiday spirit, Yacht Harbour's homepage can sometimes change to adopt a special skin for limited times as seen above. So far, the company has dressed up its website for Halloween, Christmas and New Year's Eve but other events may soon be coming.
#9 One million minutes are spent watching Yacht Harbour's videos monthly
Playing an increasingly important role for any media company, videos have been a key to Yacht Harbour's success as well with over 800 days worth of videos being watched on our platform every month. The latest Black Pearl video alone reached over 3 million impressions on our network.
#10 Our Facebook page outranks its nearest competition 10 to 1
Owing much of its success to social media, Yacht Harbour has always tried to dominate the space in the superyacht sector and Facebook is currently the most reflective of this paradigm. Whereas Yacht Harbour gets 36,500 engagements on its page every week, the nearest competition currently sits at 3,300 engagements per week.
#11 It took us over 20,000 hours to build the Timeline platform
A major step forward in yacht search, Yacht Harbour's Timeline platform was launched in May 2017 after over 20,000 hours of research. The platform, compared to a Bloomberg terminal for yachting, lets its subscribers track the market in real time, discover the story behind any yacht and find the best deals on the market with big data.
Photos by Julien Hubert
Russian designer Max Zhivov in partnership with Tutkish engineering company Otobot and Turkish builder U4 have presented 165 Explorer is flagship of Viatorem series. Built in steel and aluminium, the model will offer large interior areas.One of specific design solutions on 165 Explorer is the superstructure pushed forward to provide generous aft space with multifunctional area, also deployed to house multiple toys. Aft upper deck drone offers flexibility to explore seas and lands.The vessel will feature a wide beam, full glass interior area concept, a spacious owner’s cabin with a private portable balcony, four guest rooms, generous aft party area with a pool and swim platform and entertainment venue with a bar and sunbeds on the sundeck.According to the creators, safe and durable sea trial is supplied with hybrid propulsion system and stabiliser fins. Efficient hull decreases fuel consumption and increases 165 Viatorem’s range.Upon request, 165 Explorer can also be built on fully sandwich composite structure. The designers claim, the vessel would boast a long range with its efficient hull and would have good seakeeping on rough sea conditions.Another recent concept by the designers team is 130 Viatorem.
December 9, 2019
The second hull of the 42-metre E-Volution hybrid sloop has been launched in the water at Perini Navi Istanbul facility. It is the second launch of that particular model within a year, with construction still in progress on both hulls.With ‘E’ standing for electric the 42-metre E-volution was first presented at the Monaco Yacht Show 2017. The vessel features a hybrid propulsion engine system, combining diesel engine with eco-friendly electric motor and contributing to the yard's course on environmental sustainability. While the yacht’s naval architecture was designed by US-based Reichel-Pugh studio, the head of Perini Navi in-house design department developed the yacht’s exterior styling. The 42-metre comes with aluminium hull and carbon fibre superstructure.Within 275GT interior, the design concept trademarks a foldable transom door, giving staircase access to both sides of a sea-level alcove. A sail drum storage is situated below deck, whilst carbon fibre helm pods lay at the aft.Accommodation on-board will be provided to a total of eight guests across four cabins, while the crew quarters will accommodate seven people.The diesel-electric system will allow silent cruising with a range of 3,200 nautical miles at the speed of 10 knots, given that the yacht's total fuel capacity will make 20,000 litres.The vessel will now be moved to Viareggio for completion. She remains on track for a 2021 delivery. Meanwhile, the builder has recently sold the first unit of the 47-metre sailing yacht of the E-volution range.
December 6, 2019
Financial news source Milano Finanza has reported that Italian yard Sanlorenzo has been on track for its trading debut on Italian Stock Exchange on December 10.Sanlorenzo CEO Massimo PerottiDuring the Cannes Yachting Festival 2019, CEO and majority shareholder of Sanlorenzo, Massimo Perotti, made an official announcement about the company’s IPO plans by the end of the year. Now, the release date for the Milan Stock Exchange has been announced. Meanwhile, Perotti has been recently named the Entrepreneur of the Year in Italy.According to Milano Finanza, Massimo Perotti has completed the company’s international roadshow with the share offering covered by several Italian and international investors. Among institutional investors are Kairos, Mediolanum, Fideuram and Azimut, along with JP Morgan, Amundi and Norges placing ‘heavy-hitting’ bets on Sanlorenzo.The final share price has not been revealed so far. Sanlorenzo will have 31.9% of its share capital on offer, with an indicative price of €16 to €19 per share, to a targeted valuation of €480 to €570 million.Noteworthy, Ferretti Group, one of the main competitors of Sanlorenzo, abandoned the idea of trading on the stock exchange due to unsatisfactory results of the public offering period earlier this year.
December 6, 2019
By November 2020, new superyacht marina should be completed and open for yachts on Navi Island (Fiji). Located in a 10-minute drive from Savusavu Airport, it is set to become one of the region’s first green facilities.The 150-berth Marina is conceived as one of the first eco-friendly yacht harbours in the world, by forbidding the use of disposable plastic bags on its territory. What is more, the marina and associated resort will be powered by renewable solar energy.Nawi Island Ltd’s Managing Director Mike Gann commented: We intend to be one of the first green marinas in the world. In doing so, the development on the island will be powered by renewable energy, namely solar. We are also putting in place an organic wastewater treatment system for the whole island and in addition, the company is using sustainable and organic building materials on the island.The marina’s berths will be able to welcome boats from 10 to 60 meters in length. In addition, fuel and power connections along with fire service pedestals, wastewater pump-out, ferry and taxi pontoon and a 75-tonne travel lift will be provided.The yard will offer repair and maintenance services, a hard stand, pull-up fuel and wastewater pump-out, and long-term dry storage. The marina will also comprise a hotel with a spa and sports facilities, 38 private villas and a yacht club.The works should be completed by early 2020. The official opening should take place ahead of the 2021 America's Cup yacht race held in New Zealand.
December 5, 2019
The 78-metre Full Custom superyacht project by Dutch builder Amels has touched water for the first time. The vessel is the builder’s largest superyacht in terms of interior volume. Earlier launched at Damen hull-building facility on the Danube, the 2,850 GT yacht features Espen Øino design and naval architecture and interiors by Zuretti Interior Designers. She is scheduled for completion in 2021, following transport to the AMELS outfitting yard in the Netherlands.Although several Amels superyachts including the 83-metre Here Comes The Sun and the 82-metre Ilona outdo the new-build in terms of LOA, the new Full Custom project features larger Gross Tonnage to make her the largest Amels superyacht once delivered.Espen Øino comments on the project’s details:The layout with the big pool on the upper deck with the boats below either side, but they are all hidden so you don’t see it. And of course the balconies with the direct access from the cabins out which you can spot very easily and it’s actually looking pretty amazing. The contract for construction of the vessel was signed in 2017, during the Monaco Yacht Show. Representing the owner, Andrew Tree of Superyacht Technical Services commented:This truly custom yacht, with stunning design both inside and out, could only be achieved with the greatest collaboration, having the very best of European design and the highest quality of construction and management.
December 4, 2019